System and Method for Construction Estimation Using Aerial Images

ABSTRACT

A system and method for construction estimation using aerial images is provided. The system receives at least one aerial image of a building. An estimation engine processes the aerial image at a plurality of angles to automatically identify a plurality (e.g., perimeter and interior) lines in the image corresponding to a plurality of features of a roof the building. The estimation engine allows users to generate two-dimensional and three-dimensional models of the roof by automatically delineating various roof features, and generates a report including information about the roof of the building.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims the benefit of priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/709,112 filed on Dec. 10, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/358,870 filed on Nov. 22, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,503,842, issued on Dec. 10, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/397,325 filed on Feb. 15, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,501,700, issued on Nov. 22, 2016, the entire disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of construction estimation. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for construction estimation using aerial images.

Related Art

In the construction and insurance industries, accurate and rapid estimation of construction materials and costs is important. For example, such information is often used by construction professionals to specify materials and associated costs for both newly-constructed buildings, as well as for replacing and upgrading existing structures. Further, in the insurance industry, accurate information about construction materials and costs is critical to determining the proper costs for insuring buildings/structures.

It is of particular importance in the construction and insurance industries to quickly and accurately estimate various parameters regarding roof structures, such as roof dimensions, pitches, surfaces, areas, and associated material costs. To this end, various software systems have been implemented to estimate roofing materials and roofing costs. Such systems process aerial images (e.g., using digital photographs taken from airplanes flying over buildings) and allow users to estimate construction materials and costs by delineating the bounds of a roof, and by calculating dimensions based upon the delineated bounds. However, such systems are time-consuming and difficult to use. Indeed, such systems often require a large amount of manual input by the user (e.g., by manually delineating roof boundaries using a mouse and graphical user interface) before a roof model or estimation report can be generated.

In view of existing technology in this field, what would be desirable is a system that processes aerial images of a building structure and automatically performs steps to quickly and efficiently assist a user in the roof estimation process. Specifically, what would be desirable is a system that automatically delineates roof boundaries in an image of a building or a structure with minimal user intervention, automatically creates a model of the roof structure, and automatically generates a roof estimation report which includes useful information about the roof including material costs and dimensions of the roof. Accordingly, what would be desirable, but has not yet been provided, is a system and method for construction estimation using aerial images which addresses the foregoing needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for construction estimation using aerial images. The system includes a computer system for receiving at least one aerial image of a building, and an estimation engine for processing the aerial image to estimate one or more features relating to a roof of the building, the estimation engine histogram processing the aerial image at a plurality of angles to automatically identify a plurality of lines in the image corresponding to features of a roof the building.

A method for building estimation is also provided. The method comprises the steps of receiving at a computer system at least one aerial image of a building, histogram processing the aerial image at a plurality of angles using an estimation engine in the computer system to automatically identify a plurality of lines in the image corresponding to a plurality of feature of a roof of the building, constructing a three-dimensional wireframe model of the roof using the plurality of lines, and processing the three-dimensional model of the roof using the estimation engine to generate a report including information about the roof of the building.

A non-transitory, computer-readable medium is also provided. The computer readable medium includes computer-readable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform the steps comprising receiving at a computer system at least one aerial image of a building, histogram processing the aerial image at a plurality of angles using an estimation engine in the computer system to automatically identify a plurality of lines in the image corresponding to a plurality of feature of a roof of the building, constructing a three-dimensional wireframe model of the roof using the plurality of lines, and processing the three-dimensional model of the roof using the estimation engine to generate a report including information about the roof of the building.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing features of the invention will be apparent from the following Detailed Description of the Invention, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the system of the present invention for construction estimation using aerial images;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing overall processing steps carried out by the system of the present invention;

FIGS. 3A-3L are screenshots showing operation of the system of the present invention in detail;

FIGS. 4A-4B are views of a sample estimation report generated by the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing steps carried out by the present invention for processing an aerial image to automatically identify roof lines; and

FIGS. 6A-6K are views illustrating the steps of FIG. 5 for processing an aerial image to automatically identify roof lines.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for construction estimation using aerial images, as discussed in detail below in connection with FIGS. 1-6K.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the system of the present invention, indicated generally at 10. The system 10 comprises a computer system 12 (e.g., a server) having an aerial image database 14 stored therein and an estimation software engine (module) 16. The database 14 could be stored on the computer system 12, or located externally (e.g., in a separate database server in communication with the system 10). As will be discussed in greater detail below, the estimation engine 16 allows users to generate three-dimensional models of roofs and buildings/structures to estimate dimensions of such structures as well as material costs and other parameters. Importantly, the estimation engine 16 allows users to easily generate such models by automatically delineating various roof structures such as eaves, hips, ridges, valleys, etc.

The system 10 can communicate through a network 18 with one or more of a variety of image providers to obtain aerial images or photographs of a building structure 20 and can store them in the aerial image database 14 in any suitable format, such as JPEG, TIFF, GIF, etc. Network communication could be over the Internet using standard TCP/IP communications protocols (e.g., hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), secure HTTP (HTTPS), file transfer protocol (FTP), electronic data interchange (EDI), etc.), through a private network connection (e.g., wide-area network (WAN) connection, e-mails, electronic data interchange (EDI) messages, extensible markup language (XML) messages, file transfer protocol (FTP) file transfers, etc.), or any other suitable wired or wireless electronic communications format.

Image providers that the computer system 12 could communicate with include, but are not limited to, an airplane 22 having a camera 24 capable of capturing images of the structure 20, and/or a third-party aerial image provider 26, such as Pictometry, Google, or Bing. Although images of any quality can be used, high-quality images free from obstructions (e.g., trees, shadows, snow, etc.) are preferred.

The computer system 12 could be any suitable computer server (e.g., a server with an INTEL microprocessor, multiple processors, multiple processing cores) running any suitable operating system (e.g., Windows by Microsoft, Linux, etc.). The computer system 12 includes non-volatile storage, which could include disk (e.g., hard disk), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), erasable, programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically-erasable, programmable ROM (EEPROM), or any other type of non-volatile memory. The estimation engine 16, discussed in greater detail below, could be embodied as computer-readable instructions stored in computer-readable media (e.g., the non-volatile memory mentioned above), and programmed in any suitable programming language (e.g., C, C++, Java, etc.).

The system 10 could be web-based and could allow for remote access to the system 10 over a network 28 (e.g., Internet, WAN, LAN, etc.) by one or more devices, such as a personal computer system 30, a smart cellular telephone 32, a tablet computer 34, or other devices. It is also contemplated that at least some of the functionality of the system 10 could run locally on devices (e.g., personal computer 30, smart cellular telephone 32, tablet computer 34, etc.) programmed with software in accordance with the present invention. It is conceivable that, in such circumstances, the device could communicate with a remote aerial image database over a network 28.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing overall processing steps 40 carried out by the estimation engine 16 of the system 10. Reference is also made herein to FIGS. 3A-4B, which are views showing operation of the estimation engine 16. Beginning in step 42, as shown in FIG. 3A, a graphical user interface 80 is generated by the estimation engine 16 and presented to a user to allow the user to select an aerial image 82 of a building or structure, preferably from the aerial image database 14. Then, in step 44, the user can crop the image 82 by selecting a roof 86 from the image 82 using a selection tool 84 of the graphical user interface 80, e.g., by creating a box around the desired area. In step 46, as shown in FIG. 3B, the estimation engine 16 automatically rotates the roof 86 of the cropped image 82 so that the image 82 is aligned vertically and horizontally using roof lines 88, 90.

The process for aligning the image 82 is described as follows. First, the processing steps discussed in detail below in connection with FIG. 5 are carried out to automatically identify perimeter and interior roof lines in the image. Using this information, a sequence of points are identified in each direction (e.g., 360 degrees) and are defined as rays in the set {raycast}, and include top ray {top}, bottom ray {bottom}, left ray {left}, and right ray {right}. Then, for each ray in the set {raycast}, the sequence of points are divided into |raycast|−2 subsets of two sequences made up of points {{0 . . . 1}, {2 . . . |raycast|−1}}, {{0 . . . 2}, {3 . . . |raycast|−1} } to {{0−|raycast| . . . 3}, {|raycast|−2 . . . |raycast|−1}} where |raycast| is the length of the sequence and 0 . . . 1 is the indices of the first and second point and 2 . . . |raycast|−1 is the remaining points in the sequence. For each of these subsequences {{0 . . . n}, {n+1 . . . |raycast|−1}}, the two point sets are treated as plots and their linear slope is found using linear regression. The difference between slopes is found, and only the maximum difference is retained. After iterating through every subsequence in the set {raycast}, if the maximum difference is greater than a specified threshold, the sequence is split at that point and the process is recursively repeated for each of the subsequences. Once all subsequences can no longer be divided, the length and slope of each subsequence is cached for further use. Finally, slopes are identified which are similar, and their lengths are combined. The slopes are then used to identify the roof lines 88, 90, which are then used to align the image 82 vertically and horizontally.

Then in step 48, as shown in FIG. 3C, the estimation engine 16 uses image processing algorithms to automatically identify and delineate perimeter lines 92 of the roof 86 to form a closed polygon or a bounded area. In step 50, a user decides whether the estimation engine 16 has correctly identified the perimeter lines 92 or whether adjustments or alterations must be made. If alterations are required, step 52 occurs where, as shown in FIG. 3D, the user manually adjusts the perimeter lines 92 to create corrected perimeter lines 94, such as by clicking on the corners of the roof 86 that were not correctly identified automatically. As the user clicks on or moves the cursor toward a roof feature (e.g., a corner), the estimation engine 16 could automatically suggest potential changes to the outline of the perimeter, by way of dashed lines 94 as shown in FIG. 3D. The user can confirm changes by clicking on the dashed lines 94, which converts the dashed lines to solid lines.

After perimeter line alterations have been made, or if no alterations are determined to be needed in step 50, the process proceeds to step 54 where, as shown in FIG. 3E, the estimation engine 16 automatically identifies and delineates interior lines 96 (e.g., ridges and valleys) and interior intersections 98 of the roof 86. Different roof features can be identified and distinguished using lines of different colors (e.g., ridges as red lines, valleys as blue lines, etc.). The user can move the mouse cursor over certain sections of the roof, such as intersection 98, and the system evaluates that section (e.g., by evaluating the proximity and configuration of existing adjacent points and other detected and identified lines) and automatically delineates colored dashed lines 96 as suggestions for lines to be included in the model. The user can then confirm the line, change the type of line, or reject the line. Once confirmed by the user, the dashed lines 96 are converted to solid lines 100, as shown in FIG. 3F. In step 56, a determination is made as to whether all lines have been found. If a negative determination is made, step 54 is repeated. Otherwise, if all lines have been identified (e.g., including the lines 102, 104, 106 in FIG. 3F, as well as any other lines corresponding to roof structures), a two-dimensional wireframe of the roof is created based on the perimeter lines and interior lines discussed above.

The two-dimensional model 110 is shown in FIG. 3G. The model 110 can be processed, either automatically by the engine 16 or through manual user manipulation, into a three-dimensional model. Thus, in step 59, a decision is made as to whether to automatically or manually create the three-dimensional model. If automatic creation is to be performed, a three-dimensional wireframe of the roof is created in step 61, based on the perimeter lines and interior lines. In this regard, the estimation engine 16 creates closed polygon surfaces, as shown in FIG. 3G, that represent the roof faces, and then calculates and assigns an orientation (e.g., direction of slope) based on roof constraints for each face. Using a center of mass calculation, the engine 16 selects a prominent face and assigns it a default slope. The slopes of the other faces are then iteratively calculated by the engine 16 based on constraints imposed by the relationship of lines between adjacent faces and orientations of the faces. Also, the user can manually enter a slope for a specific face and the engine 16 will recalculate the slope of the adjacent faces based on the manual slope entry. A three dimensional wireframe model is then created based on the slopes, as shown in FIG. 3H. The process then proceeds to step 70 discussed below.

If manual creation of the three-dimensional model is to be performed, the process proceeds to step 60, as shown in FIG. 3I, where an oblique image 112 is selected, preferably from the aerial database 14. Then, in step 62, the wireframe 110 is superimposed over the oblique image 112 either by the user or automatically by the estimation engine 16. Then in step 64, as shown in FIGS. 3J-3K, a plurality of points on the wireframe 110 are matched with a plurality of corresponding points on the roof 86 of the oblique image 112, and the wireframe 110 is deformed as a result. The plurality of points could be on eave edges and/or at the same eave height. For example, a user could match three corners 104, 116, 118 of the wireframe 110 with three corresponding points of the roof 86 in the oblique image 112, causing the wireframe 110 to deform accordingly. Then, the user clicks and drags the interior points of the wireframe 110 to corresponding locations on the roof 86 of the oblique image 112 (e.g., the ridge lines of the roof 86), until the wireframe 110 outlines all of the perimeter lines and interior lines of the roof 86 in the oblique image 112. It is noted that this process could also be carried out automatically by the estimation engine 16. The final, deformed wireframe is shown in FIG. 3L. In step 66, the estimation engine 16 calculates roof pitches 120 based on the deformations of the superimposed wireframe 110, as shown in FIG. 3L.

In step 68, a user could optionally set eave heights to fine-tune the wireframe 110, and the estimation engine 16 would recalculate pitches based thereon. For example, the user could use an eave edit handle 122 on the midpoint of each eave line of the wireframe 110 to adjust the slope of one or more faces of the wireframe 110 by clicking and dragging. Alternatively, the user could click and drag the entire wireframe 110 until the eave line of the wireframe 110 overlays the eave line of the roof 86 of the oblique image 112.

Proceeding to step 70, as shown in FIGS. 4A-4B, the system 10 generates a report. The report could comprise a two-dimensional wireframe model 130, a three-dimensional model, and/or one or more charts 132 containing construction information (e.g., roof dimensions, pitches, surfaces, and areas, and associated material costs). Other types of information, such as waste calculations, could also be included in the report. The report could have an XML flag as a way to verify that a roof model was created by the system 10. The system 10 could also require that a model have an XML flag before including the model in the report or before automatically generating the report.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing more detailed processing steps 140 carried out by the estimation engine 16 for processing an aerial image to automatically identify roof lines. Reference is also made herein to FIGS. 6A-6K, which are views illustrating the steps carried out in FIG. 5. Beginning with step 142, as shown in FIG. 6A, an aerial image is selected. A portion of the image containing the roof is selected in step 144, as shown in FIG. 6B, and the image is then cropped in step 146, as shown in FIG. 6C. The image is then converted to grayscale in step 148, as shown in FIG. 6D. In step 150, as shown in FIG. 6E, a filter is applied to the grayscale image, such as a Sobel filter, although it is noted that a filter could be applied without first converting the image to grayscale. The Sobel filter calculates the gradient of image intensity at each point in the image, giving a direction and rate of change to the largest increases from light to dark. The estimation engine 16 computes the likelihood that a point in the image represents a perimeter or interior line of a roof based on the direction and magnitude of the greatest intensity increase. In step 152, as shown in FIG. 6F, a Gaussian filter or blur could be applied to the image to decrease blur and/or sharpen the image.

In step 154, as shown in FIG. 6G, the image is rotated by a first angle θ (e.g., 48 degrees), as shown in FIG. 6G, and then histogram processing is performed on the rotated image in step 156. The horizontal lines shown in FIGS. 6G-6I correspond to the direction of scan for image intensity. In step 158, a determination is made as to whether further histogram processing is required. If so, the process repeats until the image has been processed at a sufficient number of angles. It has been found that histograms taken at one degree increments (e.g., from 0 through 360 degrees) have provided excellent results, but other increments and/or number of histograms used are possible. Indeed, as shown in FIG. 6H, the image could be rotated to align vertically and then histogram processed, and/or the image could be rotated to align horizontally and then histogram processed, as shown in FIG. 6I. Of course any other angles could be used.

In step 160, as shown in FIG. 6J, grid lines could be superimposed on the image, such as at perimeter lines, interior lines, and/or points of intersection. The grid lines can be used to segment/divide the image into sub-images, each of which are processed in accordance with the present invention. The grid lines need not be shown to the user, and indeed, can be used solely for purposes of image processing.

The histograms generated at the plurality of angles indicate the probability that a given feature in the image corresponds to a line (e.g., to a perimeter line or to an interior line corresponding a roof feature). In step 162, the histogram data (e.g., all of the histograms generated in steps 156-158) is processed to identify lines (e.g., perimeter and interior lines) corresponding to roof features. For example, in step 162, cluster analysis could be performed on the histograms to identify the lines (e.g., perimeter or interior lines). Thus, by application of the foregoing image processing techniques, the estimation engine 16 can scan the entire image and detect and identify all perimeter and interior lines. Finally, in step 164, as shown in FIG. 6K, a filtered image is generated and used by the estimation engine 16 to automatically delineate perimeter lines and interior lines in the GUI 80 shown in FIGS. 3A-3F.

As noted above, the estimation engine 16 can automatically identify the type of roof feature to which a given line in the model corresponds. This is accomplished by rules-based pattern recognition performed by the estimation engine 16, which could vary according to the type of roof feature to be automatically identified. For example, a set of rules could be programmed into the estimation engine 16 such that a ridge or a valley is automatically identified for a given point on the image if specific lines are detected in proximity to a given point in the image and/or if a pre-defined angle (or, range of angles) is detected between such lines. If the estimation engine 16 is unable to identify the type of line, the line could be temporarily marked as unknown and automatically altered by the estimation engine 16 as more information becomes available. Subsequently, the user could then manually correct the lines and line types if required.

Having thus described the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the foregoing description is not intended to limit the spirit or scope thereof. What is desired to be protected is set forth in the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for construction estimation, comprising: a memory for storing at least one aerial image of a building; and a processor in communication with the memory, the processor: receiving, from the memory, the at least one aerial image; processing the at least one aerial image to automatically identify a plurality of perimeter lines and interior lines in the at least one aerial image corresponding to one or more features of a roof of the building; constructing a two-dimensional wireframe model of the roof based on the identified plurality of perimeter lines and interior lines; and automatically generating a three-dimensional wireframe model of the roof of the building based on the constructed two-dimensional wireframe model, wherein the processor processes the at least one aerial image by applying at least one filter to the at least one aerial image to compute a likelihood for each point in the at least one aerial image indicating whether the point represents a roof line; scanning the at least one aerial image at a first angle to obtain first image intensity data; rotating the at least one aerial image to a second angle different from the first angle; scanning the at least one aerial image at the second angle to obtain second image intensity data; and processing the first and second image intensity data to automatically identify the plurality of perimeter and interior lines in the at least one aerial image corresponding to the one or more features of the roof of the building. 